


Not Little, Not Black, and Not a Dress

by Ahelpfulpeach



Series: She-Ra Canon Universe Stories [15]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Banter, Catradora is discussed but Catra is not present, Friendship, Gen, POV Adora (She-Ra), Post-Canon, Shopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24656572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahelpfulpeach/pseuds/Ahelpfulpeach
Summary: A ball on the (somewhat distant) horizon, Glimmer takes Adora to get a new outfit.This is much more fun than it sounds.
Relationships: Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: She-Ra Canon Universe Stories [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1763977
Comments: 38
Kudos: 206





	Not Little, Not Black, and Not a Dress

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone keeping track of the timeline for this series, this one takes place about eight months post finale  
> I spent 20 minutes staring into space trying to come up with a title for this story that I didn't know I was going to write until the vast majority just kinda spilled onto the page. Anyway this was mostly just an excuse to have Adora and Glimmer tease each other for a bit because I wanted to write something light.

After such a long, boring meeting, Adora hadn’t expected Glimmer to suddenly teleport to her side with so much enthusiasm.

“Adora!” Wow, she was practically vibrating, “Did you have plans after this?”

“Not real-”

“Great!”

Very suddenly, Adora wasn’t sitting in her seat at the Princess Alliance meeting table. Instead she was outside… somewhere. She could only assume she looked lost, because Glimmer grinned apologetically.

“Sorry, got excited. We’re just down in the city,” Glimmer pointed off to the side, where Adora found the castle.

Feeling a bit better now that she was oriented, Adora cocked an eyebrow at her friend, “Yeah, _very_ excited apparently. What’s going on?”

Glimmer lit up, Adora could literally see sparkles coming off her.

“My dad’s gonna announce a big party soon! All the major construction is practically done, so we talked about it and decided a ball for all the kingdoms would be a great way to celebrate and keep everyone interacting so we don’t all close ourselves off again.”

Glimmer paced around Adora, counting things off on her fingers, “Of course, it’s still probably a couple months away, at least. Dad’s meeting with the other princesses now actually, to see when will work for them. And once we figure out their timelines we need to figure out how long it’ll take to get everything set up, so we can make the actual announcement at a good moment so people have time to prepare if they want and make sure their schedules are clear and…” She paused, seeming to remember Adora was there.

“And none of that is why I was excited, or why I brought you here.”

Adora laughed, “Didn’t want to just discuss logistics with me?”

“You’d probably be good at it, actually… but no! I wanted to take you to get a new outfit!”

In a grand, sweeping gesture, Glimmer indicated the store in front of them. It looked to be nearly overflowing with gowns and suits and skirts and shirts and any other breed of formal wear in every conceivable color.

Adora blanched, “Is there something wrong with my dress?”

“What? No! Adora, I just… We haven’t had a lot of time to hang out, especially not just the two of us. I thought this might be fun!” Adora’s heart clenched at the hopeful, almost sad smile Glimmer gave her.

“I didn’t mean it like that! I just was worried,” grabbing one of Glimmer’s hands, Adora smiled, “But it does sound like fun. I just kinda didn’t realize people really… did more than one formal outfit.”

Thankfully, Glimmer’s grin returned, full force, “Adora, if you will wear them, I will get you a whole set of different formal outfits. And normal ones. We really need to diversify your wardrobe, actually.”

“I’ve got a few different outfits!”

“Because Catra, like, _ate_ your shirts and you were forced to find new things to wear.” Fair point.

“Let’s maybe start with the one formal thing?”

Glimmer beamed and twisted her hand, grabbing Adora’s wrist to drag her inside the store.

“Come on then!”

As they entered, Glimmer nodded politely to the clerk and their assistant, a movement Adora immediately copied.

“Okay so, they have _literally_ everything, so I’m sure we’ll find something you like,” Glimmer pulled Adora along, gesturing to different sections, sorted by the type of garment, then further by style. Honestly, it was all a bit overwhelming, especially since the assistant appeared to be trailing them.

Eventually, Glimmer’s speech slowed to a point where she noticed Adora glancing over her shoulder every few feet.

“They’re just here to help and make adjustments to the clothes if we need it,” Glimmer murmured, giving what Adora was sure was meant to be a reassuring squeeze, but it sort of lost its tone since Glimmer still had a vice grip on her wrist.

“Couldn’t we just… call them if we need them?” Glimmer must have heard the discomfort in Adora’s voice, because she gave her a quick smile, then marched over to the assistant, much to her relief. Sighing, Adora rolled her shoulders. Alright. It was time to get a good look at this place, survey the lay of the land and all that.

They seemed to have landed square in the center of the dress section. Everything from full length gowns to scandalously short… dresses. Adora realized she should have paid a bit more attention to the terminology Glimmer had been spouting earlier as she scanned the racks. They were pretty, anyway.

Suddenly, Adora froze. It couldn’t actually be real. Mutely, she wandered away from Glimmer and the shop assistant, drawn by an invisible thread.

“Did you find something already?”

The dress was long, white with golden accents. The fabric felt smooth. As Adora pulled it out from the rack, her heart settled, if only a bit. No. It wasn’t the same. The neckline was different, as were the gold patterns. It was different. It was real. And it was way too similar for comfort.

“Oh wow!” Glimmer popped up beside Adora, running the soft material over her fingers, “This is so pretty! You want to try it on?”

“No!” Adora’s shout made both Glimmer and the poor assistant jump. Adora winced.

“Sorry, uh. No. I. Not this one.” After quickly hanging the offending garment back up, Adora practically ran a few displays down. Had to put some distance between her and that dress. She could hear Glimmer mumbling a quick apology, and knew what was coming next.

“Adora? Are you okay?” Glimmer appeared at her side, a hand on her shoulder.

“I… yeah. It just. Startled me.”

“The dress?”

“Yeah… I. I saw something like it before. In the Heart. In a weird vision… thing.”

Confusion still showed plainly on her face, but Glimmer nodded anyway, squeezing her shoulder, “We’ll find something else. You look gorgeous in anything, so it’s not like it’ll be hard.” Glimmer’s grin was infectious, and Adora found herself smirking right back. This felt better than feelings talk anyway.

“Careful, I might think you like me. What would Bow say?”

Glimmer snorted, pushing her towards another rack, “He’d tell me not to waste my time, your track record on figuring that stuff out isn’t very impressive.”

“Well, neither is yours!” Adora huffed, “And you _weren’t_ fighting Bow for the past three years. Or living in the Horde.” Glimmer paused, stopping her campaign to shove Adora across the store to consider.

“… Nah, you’re still worse.”

“You’re _the_ worst,” Adora groaned. Then, in what she was sure counted as a flash of genius, she let her body go slack, flopping against Glimmer’s hands, still planted on her shoulder blades. She bit back a laugh at Glimmer’s indignant squeak. Glimmer was plenty strong enough to support her, and Adora knew she wouldn’t just let her flop on the floor. Not in _public_.

“Pretty sure that’s you,” Glimmer growled under her breath, doing her best to heave Adora’s dead weight upright, “I was _trying_ to be nice.”

“A solid effort. I give it an eight out of ten.”

“I’m beginning to realize why it took you two so long to get together,” With one final shove, Glimmer managed to tip Adora’s center of gravity forward, teleporting out of the way before she could try and re-direct her fall, “You’re both _obnoxious_.”

“It took you this long to figure that out?” Adora followed Glimmer, who apparently had somewhere she wanted to get to, running her fingers over the clothes she passed.

“Just reiterating. And stop that!” Glimmer swatted Adora’s hand, earning a pout. Then her eyes narrowed in that all too familiar way, and Adora’s gut twisted. She’d been caught.

“This isn’t normal obnoxious though. What’s going on?”

Even knowing it was useless, Adora couldn’t help one last try, “Pffft, Glimmer. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Glimmer’s expression didn’t change, still glaring at her, arms folded, waiting. Dammit.

“Look, just… come here,” Adora grabbed Glimmer’s arm, pulling her from the main aisle to a little bench near the wall. Once they were settled, Adora took a deep breath. Okay. Being open with friends. Glimmer was her friend. She could do this.

“It’s the dress.”

“It really freaked you out this much?” Concern. Confusion, definitely, but the majority of her tone was just concern. Chancing a look at Glimmer’s face, Adora found more of the same. No judgment.

“When we were in the Heart, I had a lot of visions. The First Ones ruins just… did that to me sometimes. In one of them we—the four of us—were older, dressed up for some ball Scorpia was holding. I was wearing, well, not _quite_ that dress, but something really, scarily close. And I was happy, for just a minute there, everything seemed okay. Then Prime showed up and…” Adora shrugged, eyes trained on her hands, tracing the lines on her knuckles with a fingernail.

“It doesn’t feel real?” Glimmer offered, gently covering one of Adora’s hands with her own. Adora twisted her arm and threaded their fingers, grateful for the contact, the support.

“Kind of. It makes everything else feel not real.”

Glimmer’s grip tightened; Adora could imagine her frowning, determined, like she could intimidate the bad feelings into retreating.

“Then we’ll find you something completely different for this. Different colors, different cut- maybe a suit! Adora, you’d look _awesome_ in a suit.” This was something Adora had always loved about Glimmer. She was a woman of action. Sure, talking was all well and good, but it was also nice to just _do_ something about the problem.

“A suit might be nice… I don’t really know what to look for though.”

“That’s what I’m here for!” Glimmer replied brightly, already dragging Adora towards the rack of jackets.

“Now, first thing’s first, we have to pick a color scheme you’re going with. Does Catra still have the really nice suit from the ball? Actually, no, doesn’t matter. She should get something new too.”

“I really liked that suit…” Adora grumbled. She’d been looking forward to having a _real_ good memory with that suit, as opposed to the dozens of fantasies. Many of which, to her embarrassment, were from before the war ended. One was before she’d even gotten Glimmer back. But really, what was she supposed to do? Catra had looked amazing. Catra had danced with her. Catra had _dipped_ her, and for a few heartbreakingly wonderful seconds she’d- It didn’t matter. Adora could kiss Catra whenever she wanted now. Maybe Glimmer was right.

“I know you did,” Glimmer was smirking again, “It featured rather heavily in your apologies about getting distracted and getting us kidnapped. But! You two need to make new memories that maybe include _less_ fighting and kidnapping.” Glimmer booped Adora’s nose, making her scrunch up her whole face, even as she started laughing.

“When’d you get good at feelings stuff?” Adora batted her hand away, busying herself with sorting through a truly impressive number of jackets.

“I dunno,” Glimmer shrugged, settling in beside Adora. Adora watched her out of the corner of her eye. Something in her tone was just a little too casual. And… yeah, there it was. The flicker of something devious in her eyes, a barely suppressed grin. Bracing herself, Adora waited for the other shoe to fall.

“Maybe it just _rubbed off_ on-” Glimmer didn’t even get to finish her punchline before Adora shoved a hand in her face.

“Like I said, the _worst_ ,” Adora said even as half-muffled giggles escaped. Fine. It was pretty funny. Point, Glimmer.

“Catra would’ve laughed,” Glimmer huffed, her annoyance utterly unconvincing, what with the grin and all.

“Wow, missing _my_ girlfriend already? We only left the castle like an hour ago.”

“Jealous?”

“Are you?”

“Can I help you two?”

Adora straightened up, realizing just then how much she’d crowded into Glimmer’s space. She flashed an apologetic grin, answered in kind by her shorter friend.

“We’re still looking,” Glimmer addressed the assistant, “Once we find something, can we get it altered?”

“Of course!” the assistant answered brightly, seeming just a little relieved no one was shouting this time, “I’ll be walking around, just come find me.”

Once they left, Glimmer turned back to Adora, all business once again.

“As I was saying, you get to set the color palette.”

“If we’re supposed to match, shouldn’t we do this together? Make sure everything looks good?”

Glimmer waved her off, back to searching the rack, “It’ll be better as a surprise. As long as she knows the colors Catra can find something to go with it. I’ll let the people who work here know who to look for and they can help too.”

Adora frowned, “That seems unnecessarily complicated. And what if Catra doesn’t like it?” Whoops. That was a bit more than she’d meant to let slip. But before Adora could correct herself, Glimmer just breezed on through.

“Then I’ll toss her off a balcony.”

Adora choked on something between a cough and a laugh. Whatever sound did escape seemed to concern Glimmer, who quickly added, “I mean, I’ll catch her before she gets hurt. But she’d be stupid not to like it because A: I’m going to find something _perfect_ for you, and B: as I so kindly pointed out earlier, you look great in anything.”

“Glimmer, I love you and appreciate your enthusiasm, but _please_ don’t throw my girlfriend off a balcony.” Adora wasn’t entirely certain if she was just leaning into the joke or not.

Glimmer flashed her a grin that was not at _all_ comforting, “As long as she’s not an idiot, there’s nothing to worry about.”

As Glimmer returned to her work, Adora was left wondering how exactly she wound up with such wonderful and _terrifying_ friends. ‘ _We sure know how to pick ‘em_ ,’ indeed.

“What about this?”

* * *

The afternoon continued in that fashion, finding things that they liked pieces of, trying on outfit after outfit—which Adora was surprised to find was _exhausting—_ piling up their potential picks. Finally, after what felt like _ages_ , Adora struck on something.

The suit was red, almost the same color as her dress. It was comfortable, the material had enough give that she could still move easily. This… this could work. As she looked over the shirts they’d grabbed to throw under the jackets, Adora was struck with an idea. Shrugging off the top she’d been wearing, she grabbed the jacket. Once she’d buttoned it, Adora couldn’t help but grin. Oh, revenge was going to be sweet. As she double checked her range of motion though, she stumbled across a flaw in the plan. Okay. Revenge was going to be sweet when she hunted down a sports bra—no not even for this would she fuck with underwire; sports bras were practical and comfortable and easy to get on and off, no stupid clasps—that matched. Maybe black. The gray one she had looked a little sad under the vibrant red. Still, the general vibe was there.

Adora poked her head out from the changing room, “Glimmer! Come here!” Glimmer immediately appeared beside her, grabbing her by the shoulders to examine the outfit from all angles.

“Oh this… This is gonna drive her _wild_ ,” Glimmer beamed up at her, looking maybe a little too happy about what this outfit was going to put Catra through, but Adora could hardly call her out on it. She was excited to find out her reaction too.

“You like it?”

“I love it!” Glimmer practically squealed, “And if you do too, I can grab the assistant to get your measurements, do any alterations, and I’ll have it sent to my room to keep it a surprise.”

“Any chance we could get this in black too?” Adora tugged at the strap of her bra.

Glimmer nodded with a grin, “You _can_ be taught. I’ll have that sent to your room, it’s pretty innocuous so it shouldn’t arouse suspicion,” She poofed away, only to suddenly return with an absolutely shit-eating grin, “Might arouse _other_ things though.”

“Fuck off,” Adora tossed a shirt at her, laughing as Glimmer vanished before it could touch her.

Once she was actually gone, Adora took one more look at the outfit, turning slowly in front of the mirror. Yeah. This one felt like her. Felt _real_.

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  The inspiration for Adora's suit.
> 
> *old man voice* back when I had boobs, I had like three pullover sports bras and they were the comfiest things in the world so that is what this athleisure aesthetic jock wears too. My house, my rules.
> 
> Do I ship Glitradora? Maybe just a bit. Am I going to do anything about it in this series? Not at ALL sure at this point, so just enjoy the banter. 
> 
> Also I swear I’m going to write from Catra’s POV again soon, but I keep getting angst ideas for her thanks to my music shuffle (please for the love of all that is good, listen to Carly Rae Jepsen’s Your Type, Window, Roses, and Don’t Speak, and Sick Puppies There’s No Going Back and just. Think about Catra) and I am not in the mood to write angst today, but I also want to revisit SOME Catra angst before I get to a pre-planned HAPPY Catra POV thing and yes.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy! If you're on there, I'm also very active on Tumblr @ahelpfulpeach.


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